WASHINGTON - Maryland Rep. Andy Harris, who reportedly is in the running to head the National Institutes of Health, met with President-elect Donald Trump in New York on Wednesday.

Harris, the lone Republican in Maryland’s congressional delegation, is also the only member of Congress to have conducted NIH-funded research.

The Johns Hopkins-educated anesthesiologist’s name has been tossed around for weeks as the possible new director of the medical research center in Bethesda, which has about 18,000 employees in the state.

The Maryland House of Delegates room was filled with delegates, friends and family members for the first day of the legislative session on Jan. 11, 2017, in Annapolis. Del. Michael Vaughn (D) from Prince George’s County was absent, as he resigned from his seat. PHOTO BY HANNAH KLARNER OF CAPITAL NEWS SERVICE

ANNAPOLIS, Maryland -- The 2017 session of the Maryland General Assembly began Wednesday amid confusion stemming from federal investigations plaguing Democrats and concern among Republicans over the possible override of several vetoes issued by Gov. Larry Hogan at the end of the 2016 session. The Senate is scheduled to begin to debate the vetoes on Jan. 18.

ROCKVILLE -- President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming administration is causing feelings of economic uncertainty among County officials, according to a County report.

Steve Farber, council administrator, in his fiscal update to the County Council last week, said the incoming Trump administration’s proposed polices on health care, tax and spending cuts, regulations on labor and the environment, and a change in immigration laws would have a major impact on the County.

Incoming First Lady Melania Trump visited Montgomery County Circuit Court as part of her defamation lawsuit against a local blogger Webster Griffin Tarpley and the Daily Mail, her attorney Charles J. Harder said.

“Mrs. Trump was not required to attend the court conference, but chose to do so, to meet the judge, meet opposing counsel, and show her commitment to the case,” Harder said.

With the November 8th election behind us and with the elevation of reality T.V. host Donald Trump to the White House in front of us, many Democrats are scratching their collective heads trying to figure out the best way forward.

The Montgomery County Sentinel sat down with newly elected Senator Chris Van Hollen to find out his views on the next steps for Democrats and, more importantly, the nation as we enter into somewhat unfamiliar territory with the Trump administration.

I woke to a television commercial featuring a beautiful young woman whose sole purpose in life seems to be selling a spray that eliminates “poo odor” after you make a fecal deposit in your bathroom.“Oh the humanity,” as Les Nessman would say.

SILVER SPRING – Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) rallied with progressives Wednesday at the Silver Spring Civic Center, urging them to “fight for the people who sent us here” during a fundraiser for Rep.-elect Jamie Raskin (D-8).

“We are not the minority party, we are the opposition party,” said Warren to a packed crowd of several hundred people.

I was fortunate to be in attendance at a rally in downtown Silver Spring on November 30th that was hosted by our newly elected Congressman Jamie Raskin and which featured as the primary speaker Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren. The one word which comes to my mind to sum up the event is: HOPE! Hope that there is a voice, a collective voice at that, that will speak up against what will most assuredly be the “total and complete” disaster that is to be the Trump presidency. Hope that there will be a strong voice to fight for the progressive agenda that “made America great” in the first place.

In an interview with The Sentinel this week incoming U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen said one of the greatest concerns facing the country is the “Fake News” currently spreading virally like a pestilence across the land – aided and abetted by a President-elect who acts like Typhoid Mary by tweeting factually inaccurate information gobbled up by the electorate as a sugar-freak gobbles twinkies.

ROCKVILLE – Rockville Police charged three 17-year-old boys with second-degree assault of a 15-year-old during a high school protest in downtown Rockville Nov. 16 , police spokesperson Maj. Eric Over said.

Police reviewed additional video footage of the incident in order to identify the individuals involved and determine the charges, Over said. The case will be passed on to the family crimes division of Montgomery County Police.

“Family crimes division will get a copy of the report, and they’ll pull the videos,” Over said. “It could be a matter of weeks.”